Just before Thanksgiving weekend in 2020, Bill Rutherford was told he had to create a microcredential course at Red River College in Winnipeg on the collection of nasopharyngeal samples. Rutherford, the college’s business development manager, had just a week to get it up and running. COVID-19 case counts were rising sharply and Manitoba was expanding its PCR testing capacity, which relies on trained workers placing long swabs deep into a person’s nasal passage.
Before the pandemic, experts in post-secondary institutions had been discussing ways to standardize such courses, so Rutherford and his team grabbed that framework to use for their pandemic offerings. Microcredential courses, he notes, allow authorities “to beThough the courses that Red River developed aren’t long—the eight-hour vaccine administration program consists of five hours of theory, delivered online, and three hours in skills labs—they took more than 150 people to create and run.
Though Kingston has never taught a microcredential course before, the former emergency room nurse enjoyed the sense of urgency and immediacy. The new courses are in line with her own vision of the college, which emphasizes practical, hands-on learning, and producing graduates who are ready for the workforce.
“It was challenging to teach people with such varied backgrounds and levels of experience,” Kingston recalls. Many participants had to get past the hurdle of giving an intramuscular injection. They practised first on injection pads, which simulate human skin and tissue. Then, those who were comfortable practised on each other, using saline to mimic vaccine. Around 80 per cent did those live injections, which Kingston says is highly recommended, “especially for people who have limited experience.
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